Leadership
It would be a shame for Russell Means (1939-2012) to be remembered only as a maker of trouble, an unreasonable negotiator, and someone who pushed the limits of human behavior to the breaking point. I met him when I was an American Indian press reporter in Washington, D.C.
History is often made by accident, so we should not read too much into the almost simultaneous deaths last week of South Dakotans Russell Means and George McGovern.
I was a reporter with an NBC news station in New Mexico in the winter of 2003. The morning newspaper I was reading reported that Russell Means was going to speak to students at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado that afternoon in a presentation.
He was a hero. Make no mistake about it. And, his death in late October, is a great loss to America, not just American Indians, he challenged us a to be better people.
“…after I die, I'm coming back as lightning. When it zaps the White House, they'll know it's me."
Russell Means
My name is George Thompson; I have been the Oce Vpofa Mekko (Hickory Ground Chief) for 42 plus years. This is a lifetime position and it will be until the day I die. It is not our character as Muscogee (Creek) people to express our customs, rituals and traditions to those outside.
How do you describe the loss of a modern day warrior, a chief, and a friend? That’s where I am at today after hearing about the loss of Chairman Stanley Crooks of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community.
The very privileged once marginalized people of color, anyone poor and most women by simply entering the boardroom, cigar den or private car.
Luke Russert, son of the late and much-admired journalist Tim Russert, recently referred to Watergate as "the mother of all political scandals." He’s right, given our predilection to add “-gate” when we describe any ser
When it was announced that Kateri Tekakwitha would be declared a saint by Pope Benedict, a British journalist asked me, “What does the canonization of a 17th century Mohawk woman mean in this cynical, godless age?”
White privilege in America first stood for wealth advantage, the provenance of white men, no matter how amassed, deserved, shared or inbred. Among its prominent symbols are oil baron J.D.
The Northwest Tribes have produced some of history’s greatest leaders, most notably Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce. In modern times the most important leader ever to come out of the Northwest in Indian Affairs was Joseph R.
The news of the day after the Michigan Republican primary is not so much how Rick Santorum blew his chance to slow down Willard Romney by insulting working class people in an attempt to insult the President (do you know anybody who does not want an opportunity for college for her children?).
“We ain’t even two months into the election year, and the thing is already going to the dogs.”